Malaga’s MAFF: Titles Capturing Lorca’s Death, Immigration Horror, Drug Trade Collateral in Fest’s Centerpiece Project Competition

variety.com:

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Fernando Franco’s “Lorca,” Caru Alves de Souza’s “A City for Christine” and Diana Toucedo’s “To Live in a Shout” look like possible standouts at next week’s 2025 Malaga Festival Fund & Co-Production Event (MAFF), one of Europe’s principal forums for projects from Spain and Latin America seeking new partners and distribution.

Also sparking good word of mouth are “A Decorous Woman,” headlined by “The Maid” star Catalina Saavedra, Fernando Tato’s family drama “Goodbye Berta,” Alvaro López Alba’s “Three Summer Days,” an intimate three-parter, and LGBTQ coming of age story “Her Ocean.” The 25-title selection also boasts a notable line in buzzy genre movies from Latin America from young women directors: Paula Martel’s Argentine teen Western “First We Take Anillaco,” the Dominican Republic’s “Maguana Racing” from Maia Otero and Juliano Kunert and immigration horror tale “The Tenants,” from Peru’s María Paz Barragán.

Nine of the features are directed by women: in an indication of the tenor of Spanish and Latin American filmmaking from emerging talent, near all address social malaise, from big city construction (“A City for Christine”) to environmental ravagement (“Green Inferno”), Europe’s openess to immigration (“To Live in a Shout”), drug trade collateral (“Goodbye, Berta”), fast eclipsed LGBT revolution (“The Queers Riot”), corruption (“Everything Must Go”) and, intriguingly in “The Espejos,” the limitations of Latin America’s wars of independence.

Above all, a significant clutch of movies focus on violence, in its manifold manifestations: its physical nightmare (“Lorca”), its endemic proliferation (“Forest Walk,” another genre movie), and violence as an act of resistance and.